From the Newsroom: Virat Kohli bags top ICC award; Karnataka Cabinet clears anti-cow slaughter ordinance

In your evening news brief, From The Newsroom, Karnataka Cabinet decides to promulgate an ordinance to give effect to an anti-cow slaughter law; a post office in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur printed postage stamps carrying pictures of underworld don Chhota Rajan and gangster Munna Bajrangi; Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district administration has successfully conducted a dry run of the Covid-19 vaccination programme and India captain Virat Kohli wins Sir Garfield Sobers Award for the ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade.

Here are the top news of December 28, 2020:

The Karnataka Cabinet on Monday decided to promulgate an ordinance to give effect to an anti-cow slaughter law.

However, slaughterhouses will continue to function and beef consumption will not be prohibited, Law Minister JC Madhuswamy said.

When the new law kicks in, there will be a blanket prohibition of slaughter of cows in the state.

"The anti-cow slaughter law is not new. We have had it for decades. Previously, there was a ban on slaughter of cows until the age of thirteen. We have just extended it with the intention that older cows should not be abandoned. Since the prohibition does not extend to buffaloes, there is no ban on beef consumption," Madhuswamy said, briefing reporters.

Also, in the earlier law, there was much scope for litigation on the age of the cows. The new legislation would put an end to such confusion, he said.

In a shocking incident, a post office in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur, located about 90 kilometres from Lucknow, printed postage stamps carrying pictures of underworld don Chhota Rajan and gangster Munna Bajrangi, who was killed inside Baghpat jail in July 2018.

One can get personalised sheets of postage stamps by paying a fee under the 'My Stamp' scheme and could use them to send letters. However, the applicant has to give passport size photograph and identification proof to the India Post officials.

According to the sources, a youth from Kanpur's Kalyanpur got the photographs of the two criminals printed under the scheme and it was done at the GPO in Kanpur's Bara Chauraha locality. The youth is a scribe associated with a Hindi daily and claimed later that he had done it to expose the workings of the post office. Left red-faced after the incident, the officials said that they would investigate the matter and punish the guilty.

The Krishna district administration on Monday successfully conducted a dry run of the Covid-19 vaccination programme by carrying out various exercises that go into the actual event whenever it begins.

Krishna district Collector A Md Imtiyaz, who inaugurated the dry run at the urban primary health centre at Prakash Nagar in Vijayawada, said the (dummy) vaccine was transported from the central storage facility to cold chain points at various places.

The dry run was carried out in five locations with 25 test beneficiaries (healthcare workers) for each session.

India captain Virat Kohli on Monday won the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for the ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) made the announcement via Twitter, bestowing the honour on Kohli, who scored 66 out of his 70 international hundreds, in the "ICC Awards" period.

In the same period, he was also the batsman with most fifties (94), most runs (20396) besides having the maximum average (56.97) among players with 70 plus innings.